Eurostar Channel Tunnel fire

Delays for months according to the BBC:

Quote: There is a minimum of 30 minutes delay to each journey at present.

Travellers with bookings up until Sunday with non-essential journeys to make are encouraged to ask for a refund or re-schedule their trip.

Eurostar said: "Travellers should check-in as normal for the train times given on their tickets and we will try to put you on one of the next available trains.

"This could mean waiting a long time before boarding. Journey times will also be significantly longer."

The company said the check-in for travellers departing from London's St Pancras International would close at 18.45 (BST) while passengers in Paris must clear check-in by 20.00 (CET).

Thanks, yes, I have that information too. Looking for people who actually make the journey this week.

Neil: People usually don't log in to the Helpline while they're in Europe, a few do and maybe somebody will. Just wanted you to know you may not get a reply from someone who has actually done it before your departure--so I'm sure you'll keep exploring other ways of getting this info. News reports may feature interviews with people who have done the trip this week.

Thanks, I am aware of that. In my case, we will take the train from Paris to London on the 28 Sept., then NWA LHR-SEA that evening. I would be able to post info here while waiting in LHR or when I arrive home on the 28th. So once again, if anyone takes Eurostar this week, please post!

Thanks!

Hmmm...I would have thought there we be a bunch of posts in here. We have reservations for Brussels to London on 10/17 and London to Paris 10/18...Seemed like a good idea at the time. A quickie to London for some conversation. After a month in Germany, Italy and South France.Hope it does not turn into hours and hours in the two Train Station. Perhaps I should look into canceling the Hotel and Eurostar trip.. Hmmm ??

If our transatlantic plans were different, we would certainly cancel it. BTW, airfares between London and Paris are booked up and the cost has gone through the roof.

After reading the news, Eurostar press releases, and talking to Eurostar directly, it seems that this will be a long term(2+ months) problem. In the last 24 hours, Eurostar has changes their story and check in procedures 3 times. It looks like Eurostar is moving to a long term severely reduced frequency with longer travel times. In the meantime, there is a "standby" factor which I am trying to get feedback on.

We're all booked for a one-night trip to Paris from London on the last weekend in September. So far the Eurostar website has posted alternative schedules, which look as if the trains are running on time with no delays. Hard to believe. Too bad the fare is non-refundable, I'm tempted to cancel the trip to avoid waiting for hours in a train station while I could be out seeing a museum or cathedral...I hope Eurostar gets their story straight this week in time for us to make a decision.

I traveled the tunnel on Sunday - 14 September without issue. Original booking was for 14h13 and train rescheduled for 14h43 - arrival was a bit later - about 30 minutes longer than normal.

I happened to arrive at Gare du Nord about 1 hour prior to my regularly scheduled departure and received a rebooked boarding pass with no problem.

We were scheduled to travel from Paris to London on the 13th and fly home from London that evening...we rearranged our flights and left from Paris on the 14th instead and had a connection rather than a direct flight home. We spend a good chunk of time on our extra day at Gare du Nord trying to get a refund. Since we booked on Eurostar.com and paid US dollars, they wouldn't give us one, gave us a bit of a runaround about calling a number and writing a letter. By the time we got home, there was info on the website on where to send an email so I've done that. My issue though, is that the credit card I initially booked with has since been cancelled so I need to actually speak to someone to give them a new credit card number to process the refund. If I don't hear from them this week, I'm going to give them a call. It turned out that our train ran and we could have taken it, but based on the info we'd gotten the night before (ie advice to make other plans) we didn't want to risk it.

I am hoping to use the chunnel tomorrow...On the web site for Eurail it still shows the train is being used...I'll let you know...

George, by then they should hopefully have things running more smoothly. As my wife and I had only one night in Paris leaving 8:35am on a Saturday morning, we didn't relish the idea of having to show up at 5am for check in just to wait hours to get a seat, and the same experience coming home. We cancelled our weekend in Paris and will now probably weekend in Bath or somewhere else outside of London.

I am traveling on the Eurostar today. I had a 10:29AM Departure, but since I arrived 2 hours early, I was able to check in for the 130pmish Eurostar.

Basically, if you have a reservation, it is not being honored. All boarding and check-in are on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you must absolutely leave ON-TIME, get here 4 to 5 hours early. Once you check in, you must stay in. Bon Voyage!

P.S. To reiterate and some extra info:

Everything is a First-come, First-Serve basis. Check-in 4 or 5 hours before you departure to ensure getting on. Last check in is at 6:45pm as of today. Last trains are NOT running. I do not recommend trying to check in at 6:45pm. You will probably NOT get on.

My parents went of the Eurostar to Paris on Saturday afternoon and got back this morning with hardly any trouble at all. On saturday the train they were booked on a train at about 11am from Ashford International. They phoned up that morning and were told to turn up for checkin at 1pm, which they did and they were on the train on the way to Paris by 2pm.

This morning they turned up at the time their train was scheduled for and got on their train without a problem. The journey this morning between Paris and Ashford took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Only about 5 minutes longer than they expected. The train was not full on either journey. Their tickets were the advanced booked non-transferable kind.

They may have been lucky that the times they wanted to travel weren't busy. Apparently the signs at the Gard de Nord said that passangers would be placed on the first available train, but for them this did not cause any huge problems.

Allrighty than !! I guess I'll calm down. My tickets are for the 17th and 18th of October......

elva, where were you traveling from that it was first-come, first-served? i'm scheduled to take a trip from london to paris and back to london in the same day next week. if i have to check in hours before my train, there's no point in going as i'd spend all of my time in gare du nord, rather than in paris. thanks for any info.

I tried everything to get a reservation on the Eurostar even for all of next week and they were all sold out...We are in London now arrived by ferry early this morning....

Hi I started this thread, we arrived at the station in London at 1315 on 20 sept for the 1530 train which has been changed to 1529 We were told to hurry through security and were rushed on to the 1338 train so we arrived 2 hours early! However some are arriving and being placed on later trains. Its still a crap shoot at this point. Number one rule until ops are normal is arrive early!

Thanks to the responses on this Helpline, I will arrive at the train station at least 1 1/2 hrs before my scheduled departure times on Oct. 9 (London-Paris) and Oct. 13 (Paris-London). Fortunately, I have tix for morning travel and am expecting no big problems. I'll be in London a couple of weeks in advance of my trip to Paris, so will have time to see what's up about the Tunnel travel.

We took Eurostar from Paris to London on Sun Sept 21. Our original reservation was for 11:13am on Train 9023, and since we were not really sure what the situation was we decided to arrive a couple hours before our departure.

The way it worked for us was that at the base of the escalators leading up to the Gare du Nord Eurostar waiting area, there were a couple of Eurostar reps who asked if we had tickets (we did), and when we handed them over they informed us that our 11:13 train was cancelled.

However, they asked if we'd like to take the earlier 10:13 instead and we were quick to say yes. They took our tickets, then applied stickers which had a pre-assigned coach and seat numbers on each of them, and then we went upstairs to wait for the train (which left on time).

I also just took the Eurostar from London to Paris on 9/22. My particular scheduled time was cancelled, but I just showed up early at the train station and waited in line to be rescheduled on a different train. I got the next train out and it was a lot less stressful that I thought it was going to be.

We took the train from London to Paris on Thursday the 25th and returned on Tuesday the 30th. The trains we had reservations for were canceled but we had absolutely no problem being rebooked. Make sure you print your ticket at the kiosk before getting in line.